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The club was founded on May 5, 1905, as "Colón Football Club" by a group of friends that were enthusiastic about football. The name of the club was inspired in Genoese conqueror Christopher Columbus ("Cristóbal Colón" in Spanish), whose biography was being studied by one of the boys at the time.[4] Colón started playing in the local league of Santa Fe ("Liga Santafesina") in 1910, winning the first tournament contested in 1913. The team also finished undeafeated at the end of the season. Colón would win the tournaments of 1914, 1916, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1929, 1930, 1937, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947.

On July 9, 1946, the club inaugurated the Estadio Estanislao López, named "Eva Perón" by then. In 1955 this would be renamed to its current name. Colón affiliated to the Argentine Football Association in 1947. In 1959 the team was relegated to Primera C, where it lasted until 1964. That year Colón achieved a victory over Pelé's famous team Santos by 3-2. One year later, Colón won the Primera B championship, thus promoting to the Primera División for the 1966 season. Colón proclaimed champion after defeating Nueva Chicago by 2-1 in Santa Fe.[4] Medina and Oberti scored the goals. The line-up was: Tremonti, Néstor Cardozo, Raúl Cardozo, Gisleno Medina, Sebastián García, Jorge Sanitá, Luis Tremonti, Orlando Medina, Néstor Canevari, Alfredo Oberti, Alejo Medina.[5]

The 1965 team that won the Primera B title promoting to Primera División.

The first game played by Colón in Primera was v Chacarita Juniors on May 6, 1966. After the first season in the top level Colón finished 16th,[6] but the following year the structure of Argentine football was changed so as there were two championships each season, the Metropolitano and the Nacional, with entrance to the latter originally only available to the higher placed Metropolitano teams. Colon did not qualify for the Nacional until 1968, although the squad did then managed a 6th place finish.

In 1975 the team made a good campaign in the Metropolitano, finishing in 6th place. This got better two years later, when Colón finished 5th in the Metropolitano, although the team then struggled in the Nacional. In 1978 Colón reached the knockout stages of the Nacional but was beaten in the quarter-finals by Independiente.[citation needed]

Colon was relegated from the Metropolitana in 1981 having won only 6 games that season, although prior to this year the team had generally been in at least a mid table position. It was to take 14 years for Colón to return to the top division (for the 1995–96 season). During the intervening period the team came close to promotion on a number of occasions, and lost Promotion Play-off games in 1988–89 to arch-rivals Union 3–0 on aggregate, and in 1992–93 Colón lost the championship play-off, being defeated by Banfield and then failed to qualify through the secondary play-offs.

After a few mid-table finishes Colón was placed 2nd in the 1997 Clausura tournament, which is team's highest placed finish to date. As River Plate won both titles that season, a play-off was required between the two runners-up.[8] In December 1997 Colón defeated Independiente 1–0 to qualify for the Copa Libertadores 1998.[8]

They made their debut in South America's most prestigious club tournament (Copa Libertadores) the following season. Their first game in the group stage was a 1–2 home defeat to River Plate, although they were still to qualify for the knockout stages. After beating Olimpia on penalties they were again drawn to play River Plate, but were defeated 5–2 on aggregate in the quarter-final.[citation needed]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Current squad of Club Atlético Colón as of February 11, 2014 (edit)
Sources: Official website and Argentine Soccer